Equiano Character Analysis

When possible, Equiano feeds his thirst for religious and educational knowledge. Spending the majority of his life both as a slave and as a free man overseas in a series of dangerous voyages throughout the Mediterranean, Atlantic and West Indian Oceans he believed the kindness shown by Pascal, coupled with his years of service was to secure his freedom. Until Pascal had him seized and forced onto a barge where he was later sold to Captain James Doran, bound for the West Indies. With his knew found knowledge, Equiano argues with Captain Doran, explaining to his new master that Pascal "could not sell me to him, nor to anyone else . . . I have served him . . . many years, and he has taken all my wages and prize-money . . . I have been baptized;

Revolving around his new found faith, Equiano begins to believe his situation is a result of God’s punishment for his sins, resigning himself to his new life. He is then sold yet again to a Mr. Robert King, a “charitable and humane” Quaker merchant, where Equiano is involved in a variety of positions, from loading boats to clerking and serving as a personal groom while being hired out to other merchants. Working on board the ship of one of King’s boat captains, Thomas Farmer, he becomes heavily reliant on Equiano and hires him for a multitude of journeys from the West Indies to North America, where he told Equiano’s master “[he] was better to him on board than any three white men he had” filling Equiano with a sense of pride and opportunity. Along with his educational knowledge this also gave Equiano a sense that he was not sub-ordinate to any white man purely as a result of the colour of his skin, as we have recently established “As early humans moved into hot, open environments in search of food and water, one big challenge was keeping cool. The adaptation that was favoured involved an